


the same damn hunger

by roryfreisthler



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Azkaban, Blackcest, F/F, Incest, Post-Azkaban, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sibling Incest, Sister/Sister Incest, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 00:08:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14320089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roryfreisthler/pseuds/roryfreisthler
Summary: Bellatrix is back from Azkaban. But she's... different.Or: the story of Narcissa and Bellatrix's failed escape from the Dark Side.(Title is from "Strangers" by Halsey.)





	the same damn hunger

When her older sister stumbles into Malfoy Manor for the first time in fifteen years, the only thing Narcissa sees is emptiness, and it’s terrifying.

Bella was her constant companion while the two grew up, and they were only separated for one year before Narcissa went to Hogwarts with her. After she took the Dark Mark, and shortly after that encouraged Narcissa to do the same, they had still been close, but Bella had been desperately attached to the Dark Lord somehow.

And then one night, Bella had gone out on a mission to deal with the Longbottoms, kissing her younger sister goodbye more passionately than usual. Narcissa had thought it was just Bella getting excited about violence like she always did, but maybe Bella had known more about what the night might bring than Cissy, because she didn’t return that night. And then, a week later, the news came that she had been imprisoned in Azkaban.

Narcissa immediately goes to her sister’s side, hugging her. Bella hugs her back, but there’s none of the warmth Narcissa is used to.  _ How are you? Honestly?  _ Narcissa wants to ask, but something tells her she can’t.

“It’s nice to see you, Narcissa,” Bella — Bellatrix? — says, using her little sister’s full name for some reason. Sure, they’ve both changed, but that much?

“It’s nice to see you too, Bellatrix,” Narcissa says, smiling. But when she dares a glance into Bellatrix’s eyes, they just look empty and black.

***

Bellatrix gets a room fixed up in Malfoy Manor, because Rodolphus thinks that it’s best for her to be near family. He doesn’t say anything about his own recovery from Azkaban, and Narcissa doesn’t ask. That’s not the kind of thing you speak of in polite conversation. She just agrees, hoping that Bella will eventually end up being emotionally close to her again. 

She doesn’t sleep very well the first night back, or the second, or the third. The fourth night, she’s woken up in the middle of the night to Bellatrix standing in her doorway, looking like a ghost. Lucius is sleeping soundly in bed next to her, like he always does.

“Can you come? I don’t like sleeping alone,” Bellatrix says, and her voice sounds like that of a child, but an impossibly traumatized one.

“Sleeping alone?” she asks, sitting up and getting out of bed. Doesn’t Bella have Rodolphus? 

“Turns out it’s kind of weird to sleep in your marriage bed after fifteen years of doing everything alone,” Bellatrix says simply. 

_ Oh.  _ Narcissa realizes that for some reason, she had been under the assumption that Bellatrix had been letting Rodolphus in more than she’d been letting her in. Maybe she was just desperate to imagine that Bellatrix was actually healing. 

“What was it like?” she asks, as they walk to the bedroom that Bellatrix has been sleeping in.

“I think the most honest thing that I’ll be able to tell you is that there’s no way to describe it,” Bellatrix says, and then she puts her hands on Narcissa’s shoulders and turns to face her. There’s the old twinge of dominance again, and Narcissa is relieved. She looks directly into Narcissa’s eyes with some of that old fire, and hisses “I would kill thousands to keep you out of there. So don’t do anything stupid on me.”

“I… I won’t,” Narcissa says.

“And if the Dark Lord wants you to risk yourself?” Bellatrix prods. 

Narcissa’s mouth opens, and after a few moments, she closes it again, and does her best to act like the composed daughter of the House of Black that she has always been supposed to be. “I can’t promise that, Bellatrix. I belong to Him.”

“Understood,” is all Bellatrix says, and they don’t say anything - but they do go back to sleeping in the same bed, like they used to when they were little.

***

Nothing comes of Bellatrix’s less than perfect loyalty until a week later, when she pokes Narcissa awake in the middle of the night. “Wake up. We’re leaving.”

Narcissa wakes up, bleary-eyed. “Leaving? For where?”

“Do you trust me?” Bellatrix asks, fixing Narcissa with the same intense gaze that she did a week ago.

“... Yes,” Narcissa answers. If Bellatrix has a plan to leave, she trusts her to execute it, and although she knows she will be abandoning Draco, he’s already in the web of the Dark Side. She can’t know if he’ll refuse to come with them and turn them into the Dark Lord. “... Rodolphus?” she asks.

“Do you want to know?” Bellatrix asks. 

Narcissa decides she doesn’t.

After they Disapparate from outside of Malfoy Manor’s wards, they appear, out of all impossible places, inside 12 Grimmauld Place. “We’re here to see  _ Sirius? _ ” Narcissa hisses, in shock. 

“You said you trusted me,” Bellatrix replies, simply.

The stairs creak, and their cousin walks down them. “Hello Bellatrix, Narcissa,” he says, nodding to them. “Are you ready?”

“Yes. We’re ready for you to remove our Marks,” Bellatrix answers, for both of them. Narcissa doesn’t react - she’d processed what leaving meant, and she knew that this was what would happen. 

“It’s not exactly as courageous a way as Regulus left… but I suppose I can’t begrudge the two of you for wanting to settle down and have a happy sapphic ending,” Sirius says, shrugging. Narcissa finds herself blushing at that. “Oh, come on, Cissa, you know I know.”

Yeah, apparently. They walk into the kitchen, and Bellatrix says she’ll go first.

Sirius advises her to sit down, and then begins a complicated spell that Narcissa doubts he discovered on his own. It involves slicing his palm and putting the bloody area against the center of the Dark Mark, which Narcissa is pretty sure is risky, but she’s said she trusts Bellatrix, so she trusts her. 

Impossibly, Sirius manages to remove both of them, and for a moment, it looks like it’s going to work out. The marks are both gone, and their sisterly bond feels  _ normal  _ again - well, as normal as it possibly can between the two of them. Sirius jokes about how Bellatrix should hug his dear cousin, and Bellatrix rolls her eyes and hugs him, then offers an arm to Narcissa. “Trust me still?”

Narcissa nods, and just as she does that, there’s a pop.

Sirius is knocked out first with an overpowered Stupefy spell, and she turns around to see her husband. Bellatrix has already whipped out her wand and casts the Cruciatus Curse at him, but he dodges it. 

“We can do this the easy way, Bellatrix…”

“Or we can do it the hard way?” Bella scoffs. “Yeah, the hard way is you getting destroyed. You can’t take both of us.”

But then Narcissa feels a pull on her chest, like it’s closing in on itself. Lucius is using their marriage bond to exert control over her, she realizes. He has her by his side in moments, with a hand firmly around her waist in a faux-protective manner.

“The easy way is leaving, and knowing that your sister will die. The hard way is coming back with me, and possibly saving her life, because the Dark Lord will want to be able to have her to control you. Which do you choose, Bellatrix?” Lucius asks, his voice echoing coldly around Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

“Bella, please just leave…” Narcissa begs.

“NO.” Bella’s voice is firm. “I did this to  _ save  _ you. I’m not going to let you get hurt.”

“See? We can be reasonable, can’t we?” Lucius says with a smile. “Take my arm, Bella, we’re going to the Dark Lord.”


End file.
